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August 25, 2016

Doctor Who: The Moonbase

Next up for the Second Doctor and his three companions is an encounter with the Cybermen on the Moon. Two of the four parts of this story are lost, but the BBC released this on dvd with the two missing episodes animated.

Animated Polly, the Doctor, and Ben

The Doctor was trying to land on Mars, but ended up on the Moon instead. There's a base there that controls the weather on Earth. People at the base keep getting a mysterious disease and then disappear from their beds.

Ah, electricity hands!

The Cybermen are making them sick through the base's sugar supply and then stealing them. For conversion. Since when do Cybermen shoot electricity out of their hands to stun people? Hm. Anyway, Polly figures out how to get the Cybermen out of the base- spray their torsos with a chemical solvent. (Because they're plastic. I thought they were metal?) I guess the show hadn't decided yet that gold kills them.

They're on the Moon. Clearly.

There is still the problem of them lurking outside the base and generally being a menace. They want to destroy the Earth, after all. The Doctor sort of locally turns off gravity and flings them all out into space. Hooray! (They actually all "hooray" inside the base as the Cybermen float away.)

I wish more of the missing episodes were animated to complete the stories. There are so many missing, and the BBC isn't doing any more animations. It works really well.

THE RUNDOWN

Doctor: SecondCompanions: Jamie, Polly, BenEpisode: #33, "The Moonbase," four partsAdversary: the CybermenClassic Lines: Cyberman: "Only stupid Earth brains like yours would have been fooled."Tuck This Away to Impress Your Friends: The Doctor said he learned from Joseph Lister. Next Up: "The Macra Terror"